There are
older stories, too. In 2006 there was
the case of the murder of the Canadian couple Dominic and Nancy Ianiero,
who were found with their throats slashed in their room at a five-star resort
near Playa del Carmen. And there is also the Beresford-Redman case, in which the reality TV producer has
been charged by Mexican authorities with the 2010 murder of his wife at the
Moon Palace Resort in Cancun.

In the Ianiero
and the Beresford-Redman cases, at different phases in the respective investigations, there
has been speculation that the murders might have been pre-meditated with the intention
of committing the crimes in Mexico, because investigative and judicial
processes are weaker there, and because non-Mexicans would be inclined to
assume the crimes were due to a higher degree of lawlessness in Mexico.

To get a
sense of the overall security situation at resort hotels in Mexico, La politica es la politica put some
questions to Walter McKay, a Mexico City-based security consultant. Mr. McKay
provides a range of security consultant services within Mexico, including to the
hotel industry.

(It
should be noted that La politica es la politica
has had communication with Mr. McKay in the past, and respects his judgment as
being fact-based and in no way alarmist.)

La
politica es la politica: How good are resort hotels in Mexico at both preventing crime and at
assisting authorities in solving crimes?

Walter
Mckay: Hotels are good at preventing crime and poor at assisting investigations
to solve crimes. To understand why, one needs to understand the two separate
paradigms involved: economic security and personal security. Hotels are more
concerned with the former while the tourist assumes it is the latter (often the
two over lap, i.e., measures that the hotel takes to ensure the economic
security of its interests also serve to protect the interests of the tourist
vis-a-vis personal security, but this does have gaps, as illustrated by your
examples). For instance, all inclusive resorts require colored wristbands for
each guest as a means of controlling who has access to the "free"
food and drink and other amenities rather than for the safety and security of
the guest (even though the control of access to the facilities serves this same
purpose). Hotel security are trained in limiting access to the hotel and in
meeting the quests needs rather than as investigators or crime scene
technicians; thus, if a serious crime does occur, it is the hotel's interests
that are of priority rather than the victim's needs.

LP: In the Beresford-Redman case a
security guard at the luxury Moon Palace Resort in Cancun provided valuable
evidence that he saw the couple arguing. However, in the Ianiero case a security
guard has actually been implicated in the murder. How valuable are security guards? In Mexico,
is there not some risk that staff can be corrupted? Are there background
checks?

WM: Security guards are not
"valuable" at all and may have little to no formal training for the
position. They are more there for protecting hotel interests rather than
investigation...at most, to catch a criminal caught in the act and hold him/her
for the police. Background checks are not done on the staff (for the most
part). And corruption is rampant.

Who are they working for?

LP: Also in the Beresford-Redman
case, there is highly detailed information – down to the minute – on swipe-key
access to the hotel room. Do most resorts in Mexico have this technology? Do
you consider it valuable?

WM: The card swipe technology is part and parcel
of it being an electronic system that is controlled by the front desk (to
activate and deactivate cards); thus, tracking would be easy. I would consider
it valuable, but in light of the dismal investigative ability of Mexican police
it is not used to its potential (98.5% of all crimes in Mexico are unsolved).

LP: At the Moon Palace Resort in
Cancun, security guards check all cars that come and go. How important is
monitoring automobile access? Are there better/worse ways to do it? Is there
automated technology that can do this?

WM: Controlling car access is
important as a security feature. Usually five star hotels all have cameras as
well, so that the vehicles’ plates and the faces of the people exiting and
entering are recorded. However, this is more a deterrent to crimes of
opportunity (to dissuade them) rather than a strategy against criminals who
want to target the hotel and/or its guests. The professional criminal will
steal a car to commit the crime (which happens on a daily basis all over
Mexico).

LP: In the Sheila Nabb case, video
footage provided some assistance, but there was no camera in the elevator. Is
this normal? What role does video surveillance play? There doesn’t seem to be
any video surveillance to assist in the Beresford-Redman case.

WM: Cameras in elevators are hit
and miss...as a "guesstimate", I would say 30% of five star hotels
would have them (the hotel that Nabb stayed in was five star). Video
surveillance is an investigative aid, not a deterrent (the UK is an excellent
case study on this). And again, you need capable, competent investigators to
follow up (which Mexico lacks). Finally, the footage is difficult to use,
especially if it is grainy and/or the suspect does not look up at the camera
etc.

LP: Beach access seems to be a
significant problem. It appears to be how the assailant got access to the hotel
in Mazatlan where Sheila Nabb was assaulted. Can you comment on how hotels can
best address this?

WM: The man charged with the Nabb
case most likely is NOT the one who committed the crime and thus we do not know
how access was gained to the hotel or if it was not another guest, employee, or
even her husband who did it...it is all speculation. However, the issue of
limiting beach access as a measure to improve the security of the guests’
conflicts with the economic incentives of the hotels to ensure that the guests
are happy and not bothered by such restrictive security. The wrist band tactic
used by all inclusive hotels might work, but then you have to hire extra
personnel to monitor the guests (cutting into profits).(TE Wilson is the author of Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel.)

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Podcast: Notes From The Underground

In the podcast Notes From The Underground TE Wilson discusses historical and contemporary attitudes toward crime. Each episode features a one-on-one interview that explores a unique topic. Interviewees include authors, experts, and individuals with personal experiences of crime. These podcasts were originally broadcast through the facilities of Trent Radio in Peterborough, Canada.

Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel

Bicultural and transgender, detective Ernesto Sánchez seeks a missing Canadian woman on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Moving uneasily in a world where benign tourism co-exists with extreme violence, he becomes a pawn in a shadowy power-play between corrupt police and drug cartels. Forced to make hard choices – desperate, wounded, and friendless – Sánchez takes refuge in the lawless mountains of Oaxaca. And discovers his fate.

“Wilson’s Mezcalero is a real-pager turner…While the milieu of Wilson’s novel is reminiscent of the hard-boiled tradition, his creation of P.I. Ernesto Sánchez is original, and helps Wilson push the boundaries with respect to genre. Sánchez is a hard-hitting private eye, but Wilson also depicts him as struggling with many of the issues that transgender individuals typically face; in this manner, Wilson creates both a riveting mystery and timely story about navigating life as a gender nonconforming individual.”

“Mezcalero is a remarkable read, with sustained suspense, surprise explosions of poetry and violence, and some new answers to old questions...Wilson understands something about violence and gender that I have never encountered before: that women’s violence is perhaps the most feared. Sanchez’s womanly violence in his manly body is a mystery revealed, a truth told that we suspected all along. This is a profoundly feminist book. The women in the book are the power brokers, the activators of action; even the most oppressed empleada is a container of her own complete power. Mezcalero is deftly plotted, and deploys an acrobatic narrative that is, frankly, exhilarating. Sanchez has a lot to teach us. Wilson, too.”

Janette Platana, author of A Token of My Affliction (2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize; 2016 English Language Trilium Book Award finalist).

“T.E. Wilson’s Mezcalerois, as a novel, a tacit consequence of the author’s real-world work as a reporter/journalist in Mexico. His work is rich in essence, and rich in detail, of how widespread organized crime and corruption permeate Mexican society. Highly recommended. This is great, well-grounded fiction.”

Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia, Senior Research Scholar in Law and Economics, Columbia University, and President of the Citizens’ Action Institute (Instituto de Acción Ciudadana).

“T.E. Wilson has crafted a terrific, terrifying and yet sensationally witty portrait of modern Mexico. Detective Sánchez is irresistible. You won’t soon forget his journey through that unpredictable jungle that is Mexico today.”